Fidesz are "much less confident than I've ever seen them in the last 20 years"

One of Orbánism’s greatest successes during its 16-year dominance of Hungarian politics has been its taming of the media.Mainstream publications Népszava and HVG have held the line but today, directly or indirectly, Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz controls 80% of Hungary’s media market and actively hinders the work of independent outlets. The country now languishes in 68th place out of 180 in Reporters Without Borders’ world press freedom index.As they lost their freedom to report, journalists founded alternative outlets - Telex, 24.hu, 444.hu, Partizán, Átlátszó and Direkt36 - or, like Szabolcs Dull, attracted a paying audience on Substack. But they all struggle to survive faced with an official campaign of harassment including smears, SLAPP suits, surveillance and legislative threats. After using a 2023 “sovereignty law” to investigate Átlátszó for allegedly serving foreign interests, the government introduced a bill last year to facilitate broader inquiries. In his new year speech last weekend, Orbán promised his post-election cabinet would finish the job and “clear out” unsympathetic media.To talk about 16 years of media capture, this week’s guest is András Pethő, a co-founder of investigative-journalism hub Direkt36. We discussed the founding of the company, reporting in a backsliding democracy, lessons from The Washington Post and Direkt36’s successful transition to film-making with The Dynasty and The Trap. This is the eighth podcast in a special 242.news series on the April 12 Hungarian election that could see Trump ally Viktor Orbán removed from power and replaced with Fidesz defector Péter Magyar. András and his colleagues wrote an insiders’ account of the failure of the opposition at the last election in 2022. This time is different, he says. “Fidesz, of course, never acknowledge it officially that they are behind in the polls but they are behaving very, very differently. They are much less confident than I’ve ever seen them in the last 20 years. So it’s a very different … campaign. But I think we’ve also learned one thing in the last 20 or 30 years … You can never underestimate [Orbán] and, and his party … This is a really, really crucial election for them because the stakes are super-high”.Twenty-Four Two, hosted by Tim G. Jones and Pepijn Bergsen, is a podcast from 242.news - newsletter focused on the destructive recreation of Europe since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24/2/2022. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit twentyfourtwo.substack.com